Please try to refrain from using topic titles like "Help!" or "Help me please!". Try to be more specific about the issue you are having. It has been my experience that being more specific usually helps you get an answer faster. This also improves search results and may help people with the same issue.

Brian

Last edited by admin on Sat Sep 02, 2006 12:26 pm; edited 1 time in total

100 gb Seagate internal 7200; nice! If I had one of those I wouldn't bother with a miniStack. Do you use the internal as the startup disk?

I did at one time with the G4 Mac mini. The miniStacks are purely being used for SuperDuper! backups and extra storage. I take a mad amount of pictures almost every day for work. The internal 2.5" 7200-rpm drive in the Intel Mac mini is great. It does throw off a little more heat and noise, but the extra boost in performance is well worth it. I'm looking forward to the higher capacity 2.5" 7200-rpm drives that are coming out in early 2007._________________Brian
123Macmini.com

The internal 2.5" 7200-rpm drive in the Intel Mac mini is great. It does throw off a little more heat and noise, but the extra boost in performance is well worth it.

More noise than the miniStack plus its drive? Unlike you, I don't need the extra storage of the external drive and I bought it mostly for the speed increase and secondarily to have a backup device. (Actually the 4200 rpm mini drive is my backup now.) But the cost of a small 2.5" 7200 rpm drive was about the same as the combination of miniStack plus 3.5" drive so I debated about going with the former instead. What made up my mind was the extra ports, the extra margin of safety with the backup drive and a review of 2.5" drives which showed that 3.5" drives are faster even when both are 7200 rpm. But this was at least 6 months ago. Given the improvements in drive technology, I wonder if it's still true?

I will be facing a similar decision shortly, as soon as I buy an Intel mini for my office. (Waiting for the updated minis to be announced.) But this time I'll have at least a 5400 rpm SATA drive in the mini, and perhaps there will be a 7200 rpm option. I already have a firewire external drive in the office for backup, so if I buy another miniStack-type device it will only be for a speed boost._________________Mini 1 (2012): 2.3 ghz Core i7; 10 gb RAM, Corsair 240gb SSD, 500 gb Seagate XT
Mini 2 (2009): 2.26 ghz Core 2 duo, 8 gb RAM, 500 gb Seagate used as HTPC
Also a 13" MacBook Air, 21.5" i5 iMac & 11.6" Acer 1810TZ running Ubuntu, openSUSE & Crunchbang

It doesn't make more noise than the miniStacks. It's only slightly louder than the stock 5400-rpm drive. I ran some some Xbench 1.3 Disk Tests that you might find interesting. The numbers for the 5400-rpm drive and miniStack V2 were taken from an old test. All the tests were taken right after a fresh install of Tiger.

It might also be useful to place a "Read This First" sticky in some of the primary forums or at least in the Troubleshooting forum that list some common references for problem determination prior to asking questions. Example: apple.com/support, the powerful and yet apparently underutilized forum "Search" feature, etc.
I never mind helping folks out regardless of how many times the same question has been asked but it does tend to dilute the forums a bit when we've got 100 questions related to the same issue. It amazes me as to the number of questions that could have been answered with a simple one-term search. Of course, I suppose if people don't use the search there is no guarantee they would read or follow the advice of a "Read This First" sticky either.
I've seen the occassional and less-than-tactful "Google is your friend" type responses. And while I don't agree with that kind of answer, I'm sure it is out of a shared frustration that people don't seem to bother looking before asking.

BTW & OT: The 2.5" 7200RPM Seagate is great. It is almost if not as quiet as the 4200RPM internal I replaced. I still use my miniStack for storage of photos and movie projects._________________2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB RAM
miniStack 500GB
Dell 1905FP
Logitech Wave Cordless Desktop

It might also be useful to place a "Read This First" sticky in some of the primary forums or at least in the Troubleshooting forum that list some common references for problem determination prior to asking questions.

We are working on something like that. They are more like guides with links and stuff. The primary Mac mini thread already includes an "Apple docs on Mac Mini" thread. In general, members should always do a search of the forums before starting a new thread._________________Brian
123Macmini.com